Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64

Mendelssohn wrote this concerto for his friend Ferdinand David, concertmaster of the Gewandhaus Orchestra, taking six years over it before the 1845 premiere. It quietly rewrote the rules: the soloist enters almost immediately, the cadenza sits mid-movement rather than at the end, and the three movements run without pause. Listen for the seamless re-entry of the orchestra out of the first-movement cadenza, and the elfin lightness of the finale — Mendelssohn's signature.

• Heifetz / Munch / Boston Symphony Orchestra

  Historical

  RCA · 1959

  Faster than almost anyone dares now, and not one note is fudged. Everything else sounds slow afterwards.

• Mutter / Karajan / Berlin Philharmonic

  Reference

  Deutsche Grammophon · 1981

  Mutter was seventeen. The slow movement is phrased in very long spans — the opposite of Heifetz, and the pair together show how much give this concerto has.